SkillSuite Subscription Plans & Free Trials

USER EXPERIENCE AND VISUAL INTERFACE DESIGN

Experience and interface design for subscription plans on SkillSuite website and software.

We designed a new experience for purchasing a subscription plan from the website and upgrading after free trial ends in the software.

COMPANY OVERVIEW
SkillSuite is a training tool for business employees. SkillSuite helps businesses minimize the headache for training and employees and makes it easy for business leaders to share training materials and track employee progress.

THE TEAM
1 UX Designer, 6 Developers, 1 Product Owner

SkillSuite Subscription Plans

How did I have impact?

THE ROLE I PLAYED IN THIS PROJECT
Icon - Product Strategy
Developing product strategy
Icon - User Experience

Creating, developing, and presenting new user experience ideas

Icon - Interface Design

Designing interface, creating prototype, and doing usability testing

Icon - Work With Developers

Worked closely with developers to ensure high quality work

What was the problem?

I AM A PROBLEM SOLVER

Stakeholders noticed that the plan subscription process needed to be improved on the website and within the software.

SkillSuite saw a need to solidify the subscription plans available as well as how to transition from a free trial to a paid subscription.
1
Too many subscription plan options.
2
Needed to establish the limitations on a free trial.
3
Hard to distinguish the different between the course builder and marketplace options.
SkillSuite - Pricing Plans - Old

Proposed solutions to the problem

PRODUCT STRATEGY

After having done a basic pricing page on the website the plans were simplified and a features comparison chart was created to visualize the differences.

Icon - 8
8 Different Plan Options

Our first rendition, but there were too many options to choose from.

Icon - 3
4 Different Plan Options

Reduced options to choose from, with available add-ons.

Icon - Filter
Simplified Plans with Drop Down to Select # of Users + Comparison Chart

Narrowed the number of plans down to 3 plan options and included a features comparison chart.

SkillSuite - Pricing, Website - New
ANY CHALLENGES TO WORK AROUND?

Not every situation allows for the ideal experience design process for a development team. I experienced the following challenges while working on this project:

Icon - NoConfusion

Not Making Up Minds

Constant back and forth from the stakeholders on pricing structure and what would be included in a free trial.

Icon - Stakeholder Pushback

Stakeholder Pushback

Oftentimes those who are emotionally invested in the project are so focused on what they think is important that they automatically assume they know what the user wants. When those wants don’t match up, it can result in wasted time and money.

Icon - Timelines

Rushed Timelines

Rushing the design process can result in lower quality design and development because of not allowing the necessary time to think through any potential problems or properly test ideas.

Icon - Roadmap

Lack of Roadmapping

Skipping the original standard process of long-term roadmapping for a product can often result in wasted time and money because of lack of planning for the long term goals of a product.

Experience Design

WIREFRAMED SOLUTIONS

First, I mapped out the experience how the website would calculate and display the pricing based on number of users in a subscription plan.

SkillSuite - Website - Pricing, selecting user quantity - Wireframe
Next, I mapped out the concept of the features comparison table so users can more easily see what they get with their purchase.
SkillSuite - Website - Pricing - WIREFRAME
Next, I mapped out the details for how to select or upgrade a plan within the software once a free trial ends.
SkillSuite - Free Trial Options - Wireframe
SkillSuite - Software - End of free trial select plan - Wireframe - 1
SkillSuite - Software - End of free trial select plan - Wireframe - 2

Proposed solutions to the problem

PRODUCT STRATEGY
SkillSuite - Pricing, Website - New v2c
SkillSuite - Pricing, Website - New v2 pt 2a

Zach, CEO, easily selects plan from website that serves the number employees he has to get his company started on the free trial.

SkillSuite - FREE TRIAL END - My Account - Billing
SkillSuite - FREE TRIAL END - My Account - Checkout Option 2a

Kristi, the HR Manager, upgrades the plan at the end of the free trial.

How did it improve?

PROTOTYPE
Business managers can more easily select a plan that suits their business’ needs.

Narrowing down the subscription plan options to three different pricing packages made it easier for the users to choose a plan and also be able to compare features.

BEFORE
SkillSuite - Pricing, Website - Old
AFTER
SkillSuite - Pricing, Website - New v2
SkillSuite - FREE TRIAL END - My Account - Checkout Option 2a

How did it do?

The new pricing page is proving to be an improved user experience.

Sales went up by 125% with website redesign

RESULTS
Icon - Intuitive

Simpler process for selecting a plan by having few plans to choose from

Icon - Impact - Pricing

Ability to select number of users in your business in order to view accurate pricing

Icon - Impact - Comparison Chart

Ability to compare plans and pick the one that was most fitting

What did I learn?

I learned positive things and where there was room for improvement.

POSITIVE TAKEAWAYS

Icon - Simplified
You don’t need to cater to every possible need of a business and to simplify options as much as possible.
Icon - PT - Comparison Chart

Users like comparison charts to help visualize what value they will be receiving from their purchase.

ROOM FOR GROWTH
Icon - Roadmapping
Appropriate long term planning and roadmapping with understanding of users who will use the product
Icon - Timelines
More time and not being rushed